The present disclosure relates in general to home performance contracting, and in particular to techniques for facilitating a home energy audit.
Within the last twenty years, diagnostic techniques have been developed to systematically analyze and model the performance of residential buildings with respect to energy consumption and efficiency. The implementation of these techniques, along with building science principles, has led to the formation of the field of home performance contracting. Home performance contracting takes a scientific, whole house approach to evaluating the energy performance of residential buildings, taking into account multiple or systemic causes to problems that, until recently, have been dealt with in patchwork ways with inexact sciences guiding the process.
Home performance contractors typically begin a home evaluation by conducting a home survey and a series of diagnostic tests that collect data regarding how the home uses, or loses, energy. Examples of such tests includes a blower door test to measure air leakage in the building envelope, a duct blaster test to measure air leakage in the forced-air distribution system, a furnace combustion test to check the safety and efficiency of an installed gas furnace, and others. The data collected from the survey and tests is then analyzed to identify ways in which the home's energy efficiency can be improved, as well as estimate potential energy savings from implementing such improvements. Once the data is analyzed, a remediation plan is created that provides a summary of the analyzed data, the proposed improvements, and the estimated energy savings to the homeowner. This entire process, from survey/testing to remediation plan creation, is known as a home energy audit.
In the past, home performance contractors have managed the home energy audit process manually, or with computer programs that suffered from various limitations such as poor usability and relatively simple data analysis features. Accordingly, it would be desirable to have an improved computer-implemented tool that allows contractors to easily enter and comprehensively analyze the data that is collected during a home energy audit, thereby enabling the generation of detailed, accurate, and useful results for the homeowner.